"The room is full. It means that the second life, or the thousandth life, of Jean-Luc Godard begins now, with the films that remain, "said the general delegate of the Festival, Thierry Frémaux, in front of an audience that was present including filmmakers Jim Jarmush, Wang Bing (in competition this year with his documentary "Youth") or actress Salma Hayek.
In "Godard par Godard", Florence Platarets returns --without commentary in voice-over-- on the life of the agitator filmmaker of the New Wave, who died at the age of 91 while using assisted suicide, legal in Switzerland. The opportunity, through sometimes unpublished images, to see him direct his first feature film, the resolutely innovative "A bout de souffle".
But also, in a sequence much applauded by the spectators present, to return to the Croisette in May 1968. While the France was agitated by social unrest, Godard took the lead of a sling of filmmakers who ended up prematurely interrupting the Cannes Film Festival.
Another memorable moment of the director at Cannes, where he won the Jury Prize in 2014 and a special Palme d'Or in 2018: in 1985, coming to present his feature film "Detective", he receives in full face a cream pie.
This portrait was followed by a short film presenting the latest work of Jean-Luc Godard under the title "Film announcement of the film that will never exist: +Drôle de guerres+".
Summed up as a collage of a succession of images and words, interspersed with small video extracts, it was an adaptation of the novel by the Belgian writer Charles Plisnier "Faux Passeports", winner of the Prix Goncourt in 1937.
This collection of short stories follows different characters between the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia and the 30s.
© 2023 AFP